AUSTRALIA's prestige real estate market seems to be going from strength to strength, with an overseas-based investor paying close to $30 million for a villa style mansion in Sydney's ritzy Vaucluse.

The six-bedroom home was marketed by Ray White Real Estate's Prestige Sales Michael Finger, who said five parties competed for the property, which has Sydney Harbour views.

The sale price surpasses the 2010 record held when the former Toorak estate of Diana Baillieu, in Melbourne, sold to a property developer for $25 million - or about $10 million more than the price it sold for, a year earlier.

THE People's Republic of China is expected to take on New Zealand actor Russell Crowe, in bidding for a $15 million Sydney mansion, once used by the French government as a consulate.

The Victoria Road estate, Le Manoir, will be auctioned this evening at an invitation-only event in which prospective buyers have to make a refundable $50,000 deposit, just to make a bid.